93 Cat and Mouse

As Ohta was preparing to descend to Karakura Town, a flash of light came from his left, illuminating his cloud cover and compelling him to Shunpo to safety as an invisible force ripped through his previous location.

("There's no point in running...") said an eerie, child-like voice in Ohta's mind, followed by the clouds dispersing to reveal the white sphere that had plagiarized his gravity-based beams.

("You've lost your weapon, and I can track your aura across dimensions,") attested the voice. At the same time, three red slits opened on its surface like eyes but with no visible irises or pupils.

Seeing Ohta materialize a dark sphere in his right hand, the spherical monstrosity stated, ("I am Blutgeist. I was vested life by Lord Aizen to destroy or consume you. Your gravitational and psychic powers do not affect me.")

"We'll see about that," said Ohta, crushing the sphere and absorbing its energy into his body, causing the increasingly vibrant tri-colored aura around him to become amethyst purple as he charged toward Blutgeist at extreme speeds.

Demonstrating that its words weren't complete bluster, Blutgeist didn't try to evade Ohta's attack. Instead, as the latter's fist approached, a primarily purple aura veiled its 3m wide body, shielding it in much the same way as Ohta's psychic barriers.

("I'm thankful to you, you know,") said Blutgeist, adding, ("Were it not for you, I would never have been granted this power. Now, while Lord Aizen rules over the Heavens from the seat of the Soul King, I shall dominate the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the Human World. And it's all thanks to you.")

Punctuating its statement, Blutgeist released a powerful pule of psychic energy that dispersed the part of the cloak covering his right forearm and the bandages underneath. It also pushed him back, but thanks to his own psychic barrier, he sustained no real damage.

Eliciting a telepathic hum from Blutgeist, Ohta abruptly started snickering, his mouth stretching far wider than a normal human's as his voice echoed through the surroundings, empowered psychic energy. His matted bangs veiled the upper half of his face in shadows, but his crimson eyes showed clearly as he said, "This is hilarious. A fucking ball thinks he can defeat me at my own game? Or was your plan to have me die of laughter?"

Without waiting for Blutgeist's response, the fingerless gloves covering Ohta's hands evaporated. The abilities of his Bankai were linked to his khopesh-like spear, but he didn't lose his Shikai's ability to regulate and balance the energies within his body. Thus, even though he had dropped his spear when Gin sneak attacked him, he wasn't without his Zanpakuto. Rather, as Zanpakuto Spirits were linked to their users, they could never be separated by something as paltry as distance...

As the gloves representing Ohta's Zanpakuto disappeared, the psychic energy swirling around his body exploded outward, causing Blutgeist's 'eyes' to widen as the barrier around it rippled and began to fracture like glass.

Grinning from ear to ear, now with normal human teeth, Ohta stated, "You made a mistake by facing me this far above the ground. Now, I don't have to hold 'anything' back."

Spreading his arms wide, Ohta's smile appeared to grow with his psychic power, his voice echoing like the call of a reaper as he declared, "In other words, you dun goofed."

Before Blutgeist could respond, hundreds of concave spatial distortions appeared in the surroundings, functioning like lenses that redirected the sun's heat, light, and radiation at its body from every direction. A typical psychic barrier didn't block out light as it would leave the user completely blind, so Blutgeist telepathically screamed as the intense light flash-fried its slit-like eyes. Its nearly pure-white body helped it refract much of the heat and radiation, but all Ohta needed was an instant to shrink the space around it in preparation for a psychic crush.

"Let's see how strong your barrier is," said Ohta, slowly closing his hand. To his curiosity, Blutgeist responded by vibrating rapidly, producing the same 'resonance' it had generated when it first appeared and protected Wonderweiss.

Though blood streaked from its slit-like eyes, Blutgeist venomously asserted, ("I told you before...your psychic powers are useless against me...")

Orienting itself so that its presumed underside was showing, Blutgeist's body 'blossomed' into seven distinct pieces, its interior colored a fleshy crimson. Far more disgustingly, a bloody eye was suspended by nerves at its center, its iris completely black and bearing a Hollow hole in place of a pupil.

Just as Ohta was wondering what it was doing, a powerful gravitational force emanated from Blutgeist's interior as a black, red-tinged mass of energy gathered in front of its Hollow hole.

("Gran Ray Cero...") hissed Blutgeist, infusing its blood into its attack to make it nearly ten times more powerful. Unfortunately for it, Ohat didn't even try to dodge. Instead, the corners of his smile curled upward as the powerful energy beam curved around him, redirected due to his bending of space.

Slapping the air with his right hand, Ohta proved that Blutgeist wasn't nearly as immune as it believed by generating a massive, hand-shaped psychic construct that sent it flying even higher into the sky. The hand was partially shattered by the 'resonance' produced by Blutgeist, but it wasn't nearly fast enough to negate it completely.

("Damn you...!") screamed Blutgeist, unleashing a rage-fueled psychic burst toward Ohta. However, while the attack was much stronger than its previous ones, it barely produced a ripple across the ever-expanding pink, blue, and purple aura surrounding Ohta's body.

Amused by Blutgeist's rage, Ohta's smile began straining the muscles of his face as he pressed the tips of his fingers together and said, "Kami-no-Kengen(Divine Manifestation)." In response, his psychic energy formed a distinctly human shape, mirroring his actions as he grabbed Blutgeist with his right hand, congealing psychic energy faster than the Arrancar's ability could disperse it.

Rearing back like a major league baseball pitcher, causing his 50m tall avatar to do the same, Ohta threw Blutgeist like a baseball into the sky. He could have ended things the moment he unleashed his psychic power, but as this was his first time fighting against another psychic, he wanted to enjoy himself and maybe learn a few things. More precisely, he wanted to see and emulate the teleportation Blutgeist had used to block his initial attack and 'almost' catch him by surprise.

Spreading his tendrils to arrest his momentum, Blutgeist, trembling with rage, telepathically screamed, ("You think this is over!? You're not the only one whose psychic power gets stronger when they're enraged...!")

"Good!" replied Ohta, grinning like a demon as he punched forward and roared, "Keep getting stronger so that when I face your Lord, I can wipe the floor with him...!"

Catching Ohta a little off guard, the hilt of a Zanpakuto emerged from the fleshy mass behind Blutgeist's eye as it telepathically shouted, ("Devour, Desuellamentes(Mind Flayer)...!")

In the wake of a powerful psychic pulse, on par with the EMP generated by a nuclear explosion, Blutgeist's spherical body became vaguely more humanoid. Its head, neck, and a portion of its chest extending down to its thin waist were blood-red. Choral-like protrusions branched out from the back of its largely featureless face, dominated by a broad smile that could give Mayuri a run for his money. As for its body, a mass of white tentacles with a distinctive swirling pattern formed a long kilt around its waist while thin legs, ending in pointed toes, protruded from its interior. Similar white material covered its torso like a half vest, and it had six arms, choral-like protrusions jutting out from its shoulders, and a cape-like mass hanging loosely down its back.

Spreading its six arms wide, Blutgeist tilted its head to the side and smiled sinisterly as abyssal black swirls appeared at the center of its palms. At the same time, the featureless upper half of its face peeled open at several places, followed by crimson eyes of various shapes and sizes emerging from its equally crimson flesh.

Speaking telepathically and from its mouth at the same time, Blutgeist produced its own chorus as it shouted, ("Let's see how you deal with my Resurreccion...!")

Charging toward Ohta at extreme speeds, Blutgeist extended its many hands, tearing through the former's avatar by absorbing the energy it was comprised of using the 'voids' within its palms.

Undaunted by the rapid deconstruction of his avatar, Ohta waited until Blutgeist was within ten meters before surprising the many-eyed Arrancar by manifesting a short tanto with a silvery blade, predominately black hilt, at a tsuba resembling a cat's head, stating, "Let's Play, Susu..."

Before Blutgeist could process what had happened, four gashes appeared on the left side of its lanky body as Ohta, having disappeared, reappeared several meters behind it, his right arm sporting a mechanical gauntlet with long, golden, Reiatsu-formed claws. The same muted golden material that comprised the gauntlet followed his spine like an exoskeleton, connecting to a long, segmented, cat-like tail and a harness around his waist.

Holding its side with its three left hands, Blutgeist stared at Ohta with its many eyes, teeth stained red with blood as it hissed ("For someone that despises scheming and deception, you sure have plenty of tricks up your sleeve...")

Shrugging his shoulders, Ohta casually retorted, "Nah, I just happen to have a strange affinity with cats..."

Following Ohta's words, the segments between his tail, spine, and the back of his gauntlet exuded an intense golden glow as his body flickered, leaving behind a collapsing mote of golden light as he attempted to slice Blutgeist to ribbons. Lucky for him, the severely injured Arrancar lacked high-speed regeneration and seemed to have sacrificed the capacity to materialize a psychic barrier in exchange for the ability to absorb psychic energy through its palms. As a result, Blutgeist was forced to teleport to safety, causing a massive grin to develop across Ohta's face.

Reaching a 'safe' distance, several kilometers away from Ohta, Blutgeist made ram-like seals with the index and middle fingers of its right hands as it telepathically growled ("Branch out...") causing the protrusions on the back of its head and shoulders to extend. The abyssal-black vortices at the center of its palms vanished, but in exchange, psychic energy surged from its body, encompassing an area of more than a hundred meters in an instant.

Appearing within Blutgeist's psychic domain using the teleportation skill he had just copied, Ohta stabbed the unsuspecting Arrancar through the back as he mused, "Man, you're hopeless. Did you seriously believe you could absorb my psychic energy and then use it against me? This domain you set up might as well be mine, you dumb bitch."

Exhibiting his point, Ohta promptly absorbed the psychic energy released by Blutgeist. However, just in case Blutgeist had any tricks, he stored the excess energy within his cloak rather than drawing it directly into his body. This ended up being the correct decision, as the creepy Arrancar's head turned 180 degrees as it exclaimed, "You fool...!" with its oversized, incredibly toothy maw.

Teleporting away from Ohta, dislodging the blades that had pierced its chest, Blutgeist frenziedly screamed, "Lord Aizen granted me the unique ability to break down and destroy psychic energy! I infused traces of my power into the energy I absorbed from you, so now it will spread through your body until you're nothing but a mindless husk...!"

Feigning shock, Ohta placed his hands on his cheeks, making sure not to poke himself with his claws as he shouted, "Oh no! Whatever shall I do!?" in an overly dramatic fashion.

Failing to pick up on Ohta's sarcasm, the corners of Blutgeist's mouth tore open as it burst into a fit of crazed laughter, screaming, "That's right! Fear and fall into despair as the power you were so proud of becomes the very thing that kills you!"

"Maybe next time," replied Ohta, surprising Blutgeist as he dropped his facade and disappeared. This time, however, he wasn't using Shunpo. Instead, he utilized raw speed to produce dozens of afterimages as he sliced apart the largely defenseless Arrancar until it was nothing but a mass of red and white flesh raining from the sky. Curiously, as he saved the head for last, Blutgeist was conscious of the entire event, as, rather than conventional organs, its true body was one of the many eyes in its head. Ohta also destroyed them, but not before affording the wannabe Beholder a vicious grin, squeezing its final eye as he mused, "Dozens of eyes, and you still couldn't see how fucked you were..."

Punctuating his statement, Ohta crushed the final eyeball before turning his attention to Karakura Town, now more than twenty kilometers below. He had wasted several minutes dealing with Blutgeist, so without further delay, he locked onto the psychic imprint he had left inside of Yoruichi's body, teleporting to her side to find that she, a moderately injured Soifon, Urahara, and Ichigo's dad were observing from a distance as a shirtless, extremely ripped Yamamoto fought against Aizen...

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(A/N: There's only room for one super psychic in this novel o3o...)